1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a floor cleaning machine that is manually moved over the floor surface to be cleaned. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a floor cleaning machine having a housing with an aesthetically pleasing appearance. The housing includes a movable hood that covers over a vacuum hose and a liquid hose of the machine that are visible in prior art floor cleaning machines. The vacuum hose and liquid hose are each connected by a ball and socket connection to a wall of the machine housing, and are connected by pivoting connections to a transparent dome on the housing hood. These connections reduce stresses on the hoses when the hood is moved. Additionally, the floor cleaning machine has a pair of spray tips, each having a slit orifice that ejects a fan spray pattern of cleaning liquid. The spray tips are in spaced positions on the bottom of the machine where the slit orifices of the spray tips are parallel to each other but are not coplanar. This prevents the fan spray patterns from the two spray tips from interfering with each other. Furthermore, the floor cleaning machine of the invention has an oscillating brush assembly that includes a brush that is manually removable and replaceable on the brush assembly without using tools, and where the brush height relative to the machine can be adjusted on the brush assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
The typical prior art floor cleaning or carpet cleaning machine has an exterior appearance that is dictated by the functional features of the machine. Examples of prior art floor cleaning machines are disclosed in the Kent et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,789,290 and the Kent et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,048,805. These patents are assigned to the assignee of this application and are incorporated herein by reference.
Basically, the typical prior art floor cleaning machine includes a housing that contains a liquid pump and pump motor, a vacuum pump and pump motor, and the related electronics of the machine. A cleaning liquid storage tank is supported on the housing and a liquid recovery tank is supported on the housing.
In the prior art cleaning machines disclosed in the above-referenced patents, a transparent dome is provided over a top opening of the liquid recovery tank. The dome is held in place by a bale or handle of the recovery tank. The handle can be moved to a position over the dome where the handle holds the dome to the top of the recovery tank, and a position displaced from the dome where the dome can be removed from the top of the recovery tank and the liquid recovery tank can be removed from the machine for emptying the recovery tank.
A vacuum hose is connected to one side of the transparent dome. A liquid hose that communicates with a suction nozzle on the bottom of the machine is connected to the opposite side of the transparent dome. Both of the hoses are visible on the exterior of the machine, detracting from the aesthetic appearance of the machine. The connections of the ends of the vacuum hose and the liquid hose to the opposite sides of the dome are fixed connections. When the dome is removed from the top of the liquid recovery tank for emptying the recovery tank, the degree of movement of the dome is limited by the flexibility of the two hoses. This makes it inconvenient for the user of the machine to remove the dome from the top of the liquid recovery tank and move the dome to a position where there is sufficient clearance to remove the liquid recovery tank from the machine housing and then replace the liquid recovery tank on the machine housing.
One or more spray tips are provided on the bottom of the housing for ejecting the cleaning liquid onto the floor surface being cleaned. The liquid spray pattern from the spray tips of the conventional floor cleaning machine is a fan spray pattern. With two spray tips positioned side by side such as those disclosed in the above-referenced patents, the fan spray pattern from the two spray tips intersect each other so that there are no gaps between the spray contact with the area of the floor being cleaned. However, the intersection of the two fan spray patterns of the spray tips forms larger droplets of the cleaning liquid in the area of the intersection. This results in a disproportionate amount of cleaning liquid being sprayed onto the floor surface being cleaned in the area of the intersection of the spray patterns.
A brush assembly having a rotating brush or an oscillating brush is positioned on the bottom of the machine housing to scrub the cleaning liquid ejected by the spray tips into the floor surface being cleaned. The brush is attached to the bottom of the machine by mechanical fasteners and cannot be removed without the use of tools. This makes removing a worn brush for replacement by a new brush, or a replacement of one type of surface cleaning brush with another type of surface cleaning brush problematic. In addition, in prior art machines such as those disclosed in the above-referenced patents, the height of the brush bristles relative to the machine is not adjustable.